How John Glass hit an 81% 6-week in-calf rate with Halter

For John Glass, a dairy farmer from Ruawai, bringing Halter onto his farm has completely changed the way he approaches mating season—and made life a whole lot easier.

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Making mating stress-free

Before Halter, John spent hours every day watching cows, writing down numbers, and manually drafting those on heat. It was time-consuming, exhausting, and still not foolproof.

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“There’s more to cows cycling than what you think, or what you’ve been told in the past. Halter picks up on those slight behaviour patterns that tell you a cow is on heat better than anybody else,” says John.

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At first, he wasn’t totally sure about trusting the collars over what he’d always been told. “The first year of mating, you sort of thought about it, and you’re like, well, this is what I’ve been told in the past—why is Halter telling me this? And now I don’t even question it. I know that it’s true.”

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Now, he just opens the Halter app in the morning, looks at a list and watches the cows with the blinking red light. “You just go into the cowshed in the morning, here’s all my cows on heat—mate them. Before, you’d be running around the farm, writing down numbers, checking cows, and now you don’t have to worry about any of that.”

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With the data John gets from Halter, he always knows where he’s at. “Every day you can look at it and know what’s cycling and what’s not cycling. You know exactly how you’re tracking. And if you’re not tracking well, you know when to do something about it.”

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The Results? Massive.

Since switching to Halter, John’s numbers have improved year after year.

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“This year, our six-week in-calf rate was just over 80%, and I think our empty rate will be about 10%,” he says. “Last year, our empty rate was 11%, and our six-week in-calf was 76%. Before Halter, we were under 70%.”

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For a herd that used to sit at a 25% empty rate just a few years ago, that’s a massive shift.

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A great mating season starts from cow recovery and feeding them well

Great mating results don’t happen in isolation. John reckons the improvements he’s seeing come from a bigger shift in how he manages his herd—months of preparation in understanding how his cows recover, and feeding them well consistently.

Because Halter tracks a cow’s behaviour and recovery all year round, John can see the data on how a cow recovers after calving, “if a cow isn’t cycling very well and they haven’t come on after X amount of days, you can start to look at why—is it heifers? Is it old girls? Young girls?” With that information, farmers have the information to take the next steps if things aren’t going to plan. ”Having the information on your phone, you can’t really beat it.”

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At the same time, pasture management is a huge part of John’s system, and Halter has made it easier than ever to get it right.

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“We have a bigger farm with a low stocking rate, so a lot of our production comes from grass, and because of that, we have to know how to manage that grass. We’re 120-odd paddocks. When we were doing it ourselves before Halter, we were running around all day, every day doing break fences just to get the most out of the pasture. Where now with Halter, we can set up the breaks in minutes and just go whatever other work you want.”

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“As farmers, you like to think that you feed your cows properly every single day. But when those pinch periods come, you feel like you can turn a blind eye to not properly feeing them quite enough. With Halter, where the information is in front of you all day, every day, you can’t turn a blind eye to anything. When you draw your break with Halter, it’ll tell you how much feed is in there. And when you’re wanting to get 100% out of your herd all the time, that pasture management is where you’re going to get it from.”

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For John, it’s all cyclical, “as long as you’ve got happy, healthy cows through each period of time, it should continue to get better. A good mating leads to a good calving, and a good calving sets you up for another good mating. It all compounds.”

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“It’s not lazy—it’s just smarter.”

Not every farmer is convinced about collars, and John gets why. At first, he found it hard trusting a new technology, and sees how it would be hard for farmers who have farmed without collars for decades.

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“A lot of people think it’s quite lazy because you’re not getting the cows yourself. But it’s not lazy—it’s just smarter. Whether you’re on a small farm where it doesn’t justify another labour unit, or on a big farm where you want to reduce labour, it just makes sense.” For John, who has one staff member on his team, Halter ends up being “a big drawcard, it means they don’t have to do the mundane jobs out on the farm like sitting behind cows.”

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For him, the biggest shift was learning to trust the data.

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“The collars track your cows 24/7. Who’s more accurate—me standing in the paddock for half an hour, or the collar? Once you trust it, it’s peace of mind.”

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Less stress, more accuracy

For John, Halter has taken the stress out of mating and let him focus on running the farm, not just running after cows. From better heat detection to smarter pasture management and happier cows, it’s changed the way he farms for good.

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“You really do have to look past what you got taught and rely on what you’re actually paying Halter to do. Just live it. You don’t have to worry about cows out in the paddock all day, or checking who’s on heat. You don’t have to worry about anything until you’re in the cowshed and you’ve got your list of numbers.”

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And in the end, that’s what it’s all about—less stress, more confidence, and better results. Thanks John, for sharing your Halter experience with us!

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Click here to learn more about mating and heat detection with Halter →